The Devil and Peter Tork
''"Soul... Some say it's a man's heart or spirit. Certainly without it we cannot survive, for no man can live without love..." ''(~voiceover quote as Peter clumsily carries his new harp home) The Devil and Peter Tork is the 20th episode of season 2 of The Monkees, and the 52nd episode in the series. The episode is based loosely on Steven Vincent Benét's 1936 short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster". Overview Peter gets in over his head when he signs a contract in exchange for a harp, unaware that the contract is with the devil himself. Synopsis Peter enters a seemingly unoccupied pawn shop filled with numerous old musical instruments, and is startled by the sudden appearance of the shop's proprietor, one Mr. Zero, who ambiguously discusses the instruments in stock and how their original owners are no longer around. Peter is then drawn to a harp, and is instantly taken by its design. Saying he'd give anything for the harp, Peter is surprised when Zero produces a contract, which Peter eagerly signs allowing him to take the harp immediately and pay for it later. After Peter leaves, Zero calls his home office - revealing to the viewing audience that he is none other than Beelzebub himself. At The Monkees' beach house, while Mike, Micky, and Davy appreciate the harp's beauty, they point out that Peter can't play it. After Micky and Davy leave the room, Zero suddenly appears in a blast of smoke. He tells Peter that he doesn't need the others now that he has the harp, and mentions that he can make Peter famous, which Peter ignores. After Mike leaves the room, Zero goads Peter into playing the harp. Initially disbelieving, Peter surprises himself when he starts to play, and quite beautifully. After Zero disappears the other three return, stunned by Peter's sudden skill with the harp, but when Peter suggests they add it to their musical act, Mike scoffs at the idea until they immediately get a mysterious phone call from a booking agent proclaiming they will be an overnight success. Unaware that Zero may have tipped anyone off, the Monkees go on tour with the harp and become an smash hit, with Peter's happiness derived not from the new-found fame and fortune, but from the music itself and the pleasure it gives others. After weeks of offers of worldwide performances, Zero reappears, and opens up Peter's contract. Mike, suspecting a hitch, snatches the contract from Zero's hands and is shocked when he reads it, as it reveals Zero's true identity. Zero proclaims that Peter must surrender his soul to him by midnight, but as it's only 8 p.m. Zero grants the four extra hours and disappears. Mike, Micky and Davy, clearly shaken, try to reassure a frightened Peter that everything will be all right. A vision of hell ensues amid the strains of Salesman. When the four snap back into the real world, they are even more shaken, not just by the reality of hell, but also that they can't say 'hell' on television (due, of course, to TV standards and practices in the 1960s). As midnight approaches, Zero returns to spirit Peter away, but Mike decides to challenge the validity of Zero's contract with Peter and is willing to go to court to test it. With ten minutes remaining before midnight, Zero grudgingly convenes a kangaroo court with the deck stacked heavily against Peter. Presiding over the trial is the infamous 'Hanging Judge' Roy Bean, with a jury comprised of twelve prisoners awaiting execution on Devil's Island. Zero opens the trial by calling three of his most notorious clients to testify on his behalf: outlaw Billy the Kid, Blackbeard the Pirate, and Atilla the Hun. Mike, Davy, and Micky respectively take turns at cross-examining the witnesses, each to comically disastrous results. When the defense presents their case, Mike, in a surprise move even to the other Monkees, calls Zero himself to the witness stand. When Zero enters into evidence the contract, which stipulates that Zero purchased Peter's soul in exchange for fame, fortune, and the ability to play the harp, Mike submits to the court that Zero gave Peter nothing in return for his soul, thus rendering the contract null and void. Mike forms his defense around the observation that Peter didn't want the fame and fortune, but only to play the harp. Zero insists that he gave Peter the ability to play, but Mike disagrees, and then goes into a dissertation (which may or may not have been scripted) about Peter's deep love for music, that his talent for the harp emanated from that same love, a love that Peter has always carried inside of him. Mike entreats Zero to understand what happens when a person's inner love shines through, and argues that anybody with a love for music can play music. He ends by saying that being a musician himself he is certain that Zero couldn't possibly have given Peter the ability to play the harp. Still convinced he is right, Zero scorns Mike's words, takes back the power he gave Peter leaving him as he found him, and then dares Peter to play the harp on his own. Peter is scared, but Mike calmly persuades him that his talent is his and his alone and nobody can take that from him. With everyone watching, and with Judge Bean and Zero expecting him to fail, Peter takes to the harp and brings the jury and the witnesses to tears with a heavenly rendition of "I Wanna Be Free". When Judge Bean rules in Peter's favor, everyone in the courtroom cheers while Zero, with Mike watching, beats a cowardly retreat by sending himself back to Hades. (at the end, Judge Bean asks if Peter knows "Melancholy Baby") Guest Stars * Monte Landis as Mr. Zero * Billy Beck as Judge Roy Bean * Ted DeCorsia as Blackbeard * Peter Canon as Billy the Kid * Lee Kolima as Atilla the Hun Category:Episodes